EDMONTON - The Alberta government’s fleet of aircraft came under renewed scrutiny Monday after new revelations showed former premier Alison Redford took her young daughter on dozens of flights during her time in office, including a long weekend in Jasper during the height of flood recovery last year in southern Alberta.

The flight manifests say Redford’s daughter accompanied her on at least 50 flights between December 2008 and February 2014, including a long weekend at the Jasper Park Lodge from June 28 to June 30, 2013. Southern Alberta had devastating historic floods about a week earlier.

The province’s travel and expenses database shows Redford and her former executive assistant, Brad Stables, billed taxpayers $1,406 for two rooms at the luxury hotel, but the purpose of the weekend trip remains unclear.

Premier Dave Hancock said it’s inappropriate to assume the flight to Jasper was a personal trip, but offered up no evidence to suggest otherwise.

“The reality is that I don’t know the intricate details of every day. I know that people are flying and ... typically there would be government business on the schedule,” Hancock said.

“What the government business is, somebody would have to go back and have a look, and I haven’t done that.”

The flight manifests show a flight carrying Redford, Stables and Redford’s daughter, along with two other people, flew to Hinton from Calgary on Friday, June 28, 2013. The plane then returned to Edmonton empty and flew back — empty again — to pick up the group from Hinton and for a return flight to Calgary.

It’s also unclear whether Redford was on government business for each of the dozens of other trips on which her daughter accompanied her, but the majority of flight manifest entries list the reason for travel as “attend meeting with government official” or to “attend news conference or event.”

A request for comment from Redford was not returned.

Finance Minister Doug Horner, who is responsible for the fleet, said the government’s policy gives ministers discretion for their guests.

At least one of the flights that included Redford and her daughter also included association minister Sandra Jansen and her daughter. Jansen defended the travel during question period on Monday.

“As I understand it, the flight policy implemented in 2010 indicates that passengers approved for government flights are at the discretion of the minister responsible,” Jansen said. “It didn’t cost a dime extra for my daughter to travel on that flight. If it did, I would happily pay the money back.”

The Official Opposition Wildrose called on the province to sell its fleet of four taxpayer-funded planes, which cost the province roughly $7 million annually.

“There’s just some basic oversight that is completely missing and I think the problem with the fleet is that, because it’s there, they justify using it in inappropriate ways,” Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith said.

Both the NDP and Liberals agreed the fleet should be sold.

“What concerns me the most is that it looks like some family vacations have been dressed up as government business and I don’t think that’s acceptable,” NDP Leader Brian Mason said. “I think we need to have a full investigation into the use of government aircraft by the former premier and I think we need to know who else in the government knew this was going on.”

Taxpayer funds “should not be used for the friends and family plan, period,” Liberal Leader Raj Sherman said.

Redford abruptly resigned as premier last month amid a series of spending scandals, misuse of government aircraft and caucus criticism of her leadership style.

A few weeks before her resignation, Redford admitted to some misuse of government planes when she repaid about $3,100 for a handful of trips that included her daughter and friends of her daughter, along with a flight to Vancouver for a family funeral.

“Given that I want to leave no doubt in the public’s mind about my use of the government planes, I’ve decided to reimburse taxpayers for the cost of the trips. At the end of the day, I’m the Premier of Alberta, but I’m also a mother to a daughter who I love to spend time with,” Redford said at the time.

She said at the time that she had asked her staff to comb through government flight logs and came up with the five instances of inappropriate travel. She also asked Auditor General Merwan Saher to review the province’s use of government planes, which is ongoing.

The following week, on March 12, Redford announced she would repay the $45,000 cost of her trip to South Africa for Nelson Mandela’s December memorial.

She announced her resignation one week later, on March 19. She will stay on as MLA for Calgary-Elbow. She hasn’t returned to the legislature since resigning as premier.

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Former premier Redford brought daughter on dozens of government flights

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